news details |
|
|
| Congress angers Ladakhis in the middle of election campaign | | U-turn to impact poll outcome | | Rustam
JAMMU, Apr 30: The April 15 Congress's unambiguous declaration at Leh that it would grant Union Territory (UT) status to Ladakh if the UPA was voted back to power was appreciated by many Ladakhis. The commitment was made by the party candidate for the Ladakh Lok Sabha seat, Tsering Samphal, in the presence of several top-ranking Congress leaders, including sitting and former Ministers. This, notwithstanding the fact that it is extremely unlikely that the angry and badly let down nation will again pins faith in the fallen-from-grace Congress and UPA. It was obvious that the commitment was held out after taking the high command into confidence. The people of the trans-Himalayan strategic Ladakh will go to the polls on May 7 and exercise their choice between the demoralised Congress-National Conference (NC) coalition candidate and upbeat BJP candidate and former MP Thupstan Chhewang, son-in-law of Queen of Ladakh, Rani Parvati.
Regrettably, however, the Congress did a complete U-turn within 24 hours much to the disappointment of the politically marginalised and grossly ignored Ladakhis. JKPCC president Saif-ud-Din Soz told media persons that the Congress couldn't endorse this election promise, as it was committed to maintaining the unity and integrity of Jammu and Kashmir State. He rejected out-of-hand the UT commitment soon after leaders of other Kashmir-based parties, including National Conference (NC) leaders Messrs Mehboob Beg (sitting MP) and Sheikh Ghulam Rasool (MLC) and CPI-M state secretary Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami (MLA) denounced the Congress, saying the commitment of UT status, if fulfilled, will lead to the disintegration of the state and the idea must be opposed tooth and nail. Grant of UT status to Ladakh will change the political map of the state, it will have very serious ramifications and the Congress was dividing the state on ethnic and religious lines for the Buddhist votes was the upshot of their whole argument. The level of unity displayed by the Kashmiri leaders of all the so-called mainstream political parties speaks for itself. Suffice to say that their opposition was nothing but a manifestation of their rabid opposition to the age-old demand of the Ladakhis for a dispensation independent of "oppressive", "discriminatory" and essentially sectarian Kashmiri leadership.
It's no wonder then that the people of Leh, including Buddhists and Shiite Muslims, are seething with anger and charging the Congress with doing business with the pro-autonomy NC and CPI-M and pro-self-rule party and scuttling their democratic demand to appease the protagonists of Kashmiri sub-nationalism. Of course, the Congress's brutal blow to the just hopes and aspirations of the Ladakhis dealt with in the middle of the election campaign would further improve the electoral chances of the BJP and the Congress will pay a very heavy price for what it did, but the issue is altogether different: The urge of the Ladakhis for a definite political instrument that ends the Kashmiri domination over Ladakh, protects and preserves the distinct identity and personality of it people, all racially Mongolite, and empowers them to shape and control fully their political and economic future within India and under the Indian Constitution, minus atrocious Article 370.
It would not be out of place to mention here that the Ladakhis have been demanding their segregation from Kashmir ever since 1947, when Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) acceded to India and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru snatched political power from Jammu and handed it over to NC president Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah using questionable means. That year, the Ladakhi leadership submitted a detailed memorandum to the state's Maharaja (Hari Singh) and Government of India. It suggested three alternatives and they were: (1) "The Maharaja should govern Ladakh directly without tagging it on to Kashmir valley", (2) "Our homeland be amalgamated with the Hindu majority Jammu and should form a separate province in which adequate safeguards should be provided for distinctive rights and interests of Ladakhis", and (3) "Ladakh should be permitted to join East Punjab". But nothing came out. On May 4, 1949, they again approached Nehru with the request that Ladakh be "merged wit India straightaway". The memorandum to this effect was submitted by president of the Ladakh Buddhist Association (LBA) Chhewand Rigzin. The operative part of the memorandum read: "Ladakh is not prepared to go to Pakistan whatever the result of the plebiscite may be...We seek the bosom of that gracious mother (India) to receive more nutriments for growth to our full stature in every way. She has given us what we prize above all other things - our religion and culture…Will the great mother refuse to take to her arms one of her weakest and most forlorn and depressed children - a child whom filial love impels to respond to the call?" Again, nothing came out, but the Ladakhis didn't lose heart. Two weeks later, Head lama of Ladakh, Kushok Bakula, met with Nehru to persuade him to accept the Ladakhis' demand, but with no result. He made another concerted attempt in 1964 to persuade New Delhi to consider the Ladakhis' demand but failed. They bemoaned and, inter-alia, said: "The Government of India made us to be governed by Kashmiris during these decades to our utter ruin. In the post-independence period we have been reduced to the status of slaves in our own homeland. The impact of oppressive rule by the J&K Government over us has obliterated our cultural and social ethos".
Ladakh witnessed full-scale movements in 1974 and 1982. In 1974, their demand was "NEFA-type central administration" and in 982, they vouched for "regional autonomy with the state". New Delhi repudiated outright both the demands under pressure from Kashmiri vested interests. On their part, the Kashmiri rulers, backed to the hilt by the Congress, "severely suppressed the democratic movement of peace-loving Buddhists through the state police". It took no less than seven long years for the "oppressed" Ladakhis to reorganise themselves once again for another full-scale struggle to achieve independence from Kashmir and obtain UT status. The movement, launched in 1989, was spearheaded by the LBA. This movement was the fall-out of the "cumulative alienation of Ladakhis". This movement took place at a time when anti-India activities were gaining momentum in Kashmir, resulting in "total boycott of Independence Day celebrations". Responsible as they were, the Ladakhis not only suspended the agitation but also put on the backburner their UT status in view of the "increasing anti-national activities elsewhere in the state" and "keeping in mind the larger national interest".
However, the 1989 LBA-sponsored agitation, which had culminated in police-crowd clashes in Leh on an unprecedented scale and left two protestors dead and scores of others wounded, did move the authorities in New Delhi to an extent. The result was the October 29, 1989 tripartite Agreement between J&K Government, New Delhi and the LBA. The compromise formula envisaged for the region an autonomous hill development council more or less on the lines of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. It took no less than six years for the concerned authorities to constitute the promised autonomous council. It was established in 1995 during the President's rule. The Kashmiri leadership that had dismissed the tripartite agreement as an attempt to "hurt the Kashmiri psyche" was responsible for this inordinate delay.
It needs to be underlined that the Kashmiri leadership never gave a freehand to the Ladakhis to run the council in the manner they liked, and, hence, their insistence on UT status. The loud assertion of Ladakhis that they are left with no choice but to achieve "our long-standing demand for UT status" so that "they can run their own affairs and safeguard their interests" cannot be construed as preposterous. The demand is genuine and needs to be accepted forthwith. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
